VOLPICELLI, CATERINA, Venerable. – Foundress of the Institute of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart, born in Naples on 21 January 1839; died there on 28 December 1894.
Desirous of embracing the religious life and confirmed in her resolve by Fr Ludovico da Casoria, she sought to enter the Adoratrices of the Most Holy Sacrament, but was obliged to return to her family owing to illness. She then devoted herself to the care of divine worship, providing what was necessary for poor churches, and to various charitable activities, also offering herself to God as an expiatory victim. Having joined the “Apostleship of Prayer,” she became its first zealous promoter in Naples. Freed by the death of her parents to act more independently, she continued her works with renewed zeal and fervour and gathered other young women around her, thus laying, in 1865, the foundations of her new Institute, which is dedicated to spreading the “Apostleship of Prayer,” promoting and expanding its various branches, and to the Christian education of girls. The Congregation also includes a lay branch for young ladies and women, who aim to honour the Sacred Heart through their own spiritual advancement and the practice of works of charity.
Of strong and resolute character, she imparted a distinctive stamp to her work, governing it with assiduity and care and multiplying its houses. The cause of beatification was introduced on 11 January 1911, and the decree on the heroicity of her virtues was proclaimed on 25 March 1945 (AAS 37 [1945], pp. 240–43).